Quotes

Quotes about Affection

It is difficult to obtain the friendship of a cat. It is a philosophical animal... one that does not place its affections thoughtlessly.

Theophile Gautier

Preferment goes by letter and affection, And not by old gradation, where each second Stood heir to th's first.

William Shakespeare

Preferment goes by letter and affection.

William Shakespeare

Feast of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher, 1153 Commemoration of William & Catherine Booth, Founders of the Salvation Army, 1912 & 1890 Bernard [of Clairvaux] did not stop with love for God or Christ, he insisted also that the Christian must love his neighbors, including even his enemies. Not necessarily that he must feel affection for themâthat is not always possible in this life, though it will be in heavenâbut that he must treat them as love dictates, doing always for others what he would that they should do for him.

A. C. Mcgiffert

Thomas a Kempis speaks for all the ages when he represents Jesus as saying to him, "A wise lover regards not so much the gift of him who loves, as the love of him who gives. He esteems affection rather than valuables, and sets all gifts below the Beloved. A noble-minded lover rests not in the gift, but in Me above every gift." The sustaining power of the Beloved Presence has through the ages made the sickbed sweet and the graveside triumphant; transformed broken hearts and relations; brought glory to drudgery, poverty and old age; and turned the martyr's stake or noose into a place of coronation.

Dallas Willard

Feast of Edward the Confessor, 1066 Our wills are not ours to be crushed and broken; they are ours to be trained and strengthened. Our affections are not ours to be blighted and crucified; they are ours to be deepened and purified. The rich opportunities of life are not held out to us only to be snatched away by an invisible hand patiently waiting for the hour when the cup is sweetest; they are given to us that we may grow, alike through their rise or their withdrawal. They are real, they are sweet, and they are worthy of our longing for them; we gain nothing by calling them dross, or the world an illusion, or ourselves the victims of deception, or by exalting renunciation as the highest virtue. When these opportunities are denied us, it is a real, not an imaginary, loss which we sustain; and our part is not that of bare renunciation, of simple surrender; our part is to recognize the loss, to bear the pain, and to find a deeper and richer life in doing the will of God.

Hamilton Wright Mabie

Faith is the soul's consciousness of its Divine relationship and exalted destiny. It is the recognition by man's higher nature of sources of comfort and hope beyond anything that sense-knowledge discloses. It is the consciousness of a Divine Father toward Whom goes out all that is in affection and highest in moral aspiration; it is the premonition of a future life of which the best attainment here is but the twilight promise. In our day, the sudden and vast revelation of material wonders unsteadies and dims for the moment the spiritual sight; but the stars will shine clear again. The truth-seeking spirit and the spirit of faith, instead of being opposed, are in the deepest harmony. The man whose faith is most genuine is most willing to have its assertions tested by the severest scrutiny. And the passion for truth has underlying it a profound conviction that what is real is best; that when we get to the heart of things we shall find there what we most need. Faith is false to itself when it dreads truth, and the desire for truth is prompted by an inner voice of faith.

George Springs Merriam

What makes life worth living is the mutual enrichment of people through understanding, intelligence and affection. It is just here that our awareness that Jesus is our contemporary and that Calvary is relevant to our present human situation ought to help us greatly. And that is not merely because in his relationships with others during his earthly life in Palestine Jesus exemplified all that I have tried to say about human relationships. In every genuine human encounter with another person we may become aware of Jesus, and meet with him. This may sound fanciful, but there is much in the Scriptures and in Christian experience which suggests that Jesus is frequently met in the traffic of person with person, provided that there is a genuine encounter between them. Jesus himself showed that for this to happen demands courage and a willingness to move from a life that is centred in itself. So if we are to pass out of that lonely world of isolation then we must be prepared to take the risks that are always involved when we allow persons to confront us as persons and do not regard them as things. Yet, dangerous though it may be to live in this way, it is the only way to live.

Ambrose Reeves

Since you have forsaken the world and turned wholly to God, you are symbolically dead in the eyes of men; therefore, let your heart be dead to all earthly affections and concerns, and wholly devoted to our Lord Jesus Christ. For you must be well aware that if we make an outward show of conversion to God without giving Him our hearts, it is only a shadow and pretence of virtue, and no true conversion. Any man or woman who neglects to maintain inward vigilance, and only makes an outward show of holiness in dress, speech, and behavior, is a wretched creature. For they watch the doings of other people and criticize their faults, imagining themselves to be something when in reality they are nothing. In this way they deceive themselves. Be careful to avoid this, and devote yourself inwardly to His likeness by humility, charity, and other spiritual virtues. In this way you will be truly converted to God.

Walter Hilton

Feast of John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, Teacher, 407 The surest symbol of a heart not yet fully subdued to God and His will is going to be found in the areas of money, sex, and power: in wanting these things for ourselves. The surest symbol of spiritual earnestness will be the checkbook, the affections, and the ego-drive surrendered to Him. A disciple must have discipline. He must not be afraid of being asked by God for some of the time, the money, and the pleasure he has been in the habit of calling his "own". This does not mean that there will not be time for the family, and time for some healthy diversion. But it does mean that we are neverâon vacation, or wherever we may beâexempt from our primary commitment to Him.

Samuel M. Shoemaker

Feast of All Souls If you ask me how I believe in God, how God creates Himself in me, and reveals Himself to me, my answer may perhaps provoke your smiles or laughter, and even scandalize you. I believe in God as I believe in my friends, because I feel the breath of His affection, feel His invisible and intangible hand drawing me, leading me, grasping me.

Miguel De Unamuno

Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.

C.s. Lewis

The great law of denial belongs to the powerful forces of life, whether the case be one of coolish baked beans, or an unrequited affection.

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

With affection beaming in one eye and calculation shining out of the other.

Charles Dickens

If we would build on a sure foundation in friendship, we must love friends for their sake rather than for our own. â¢Charlotte Bronte A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked. â¢Bernard Meltzer True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation. â¢George Washington Friends are born, not made. â¢Henry Adams Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes. â¢Anonymous Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies. â¢Aristotle A friend loveth at all times. â¢Bible, Proverbs 17:17 Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship-never. â¢Charles Caleb Colton A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature. â¢Ralph Waldo Emerson It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them â¢Ralph Waldo Emerson The only way to have a friend is to be one. â¢Ralph Waldo Emerson Real friendship is shown in times of trouble; prosperity is full of friends. â¢Euripides It is in the thirties that we want friends. In the forties we know they won't save us any more than love did. â¢F Scott Fitzgerald We do not regret the loss of our friends by reasons of their merit, but because of our needs and for the good opinion that we believed them to have held of us. â¢François Duc de La Rochefoucauld God gives us our relatives- thank God we can choose our friends. â¢Ethel Watts Mumford Love demands infinitely less than friendship. â¢George Jean Nathan Women can form a friendship with a man very well; but to preserve it-- to that end a slight physical antipathy must probably help. â¢Friedrich Nietzsche Hold a true friend with both your hands. â¢Nigerian Proverb Friendship is constant in all other things save in the office and affairs of love. â¢William Shakespeare The mere process of growing old together will make the slightest acquaintance seem a bosom friend. â¢Logan Pearsall Smith A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend. â¢Henry David Thoreau Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. â¢Bible, John 15:13 The proper office of a friend is to side with you when you are in the wrong. Nearly anybody will side with you when you are in the right. â¢Mark Twain Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce. â¢Voltaire Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one. â¢Oscar Wilde Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends. â¢Virginia Woolf Chide a friend in private and praise him in public. â¢Solon Depend on no man, on no friend, but him who can depend on himself. He only who acts conscientiously towards himself will act so towards others, and vice versa. â¢Lavater Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, What! You, too? I thought I was the only one. â¢C. S. Lewis If you want enemies, excel others; if you want friends let others excel you. â¢Colton Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes; they were easiest to his feet. â¢John Seldon There's not so much danger in a known foe than in a suspected friend. â¢Nabb To lose a friend is the greatest of all losses. â¢Syrus True friendship is like sound health, the value of it is seldom known until it be lost. â¢Charles Caleb Colton We cherish our friends not for their ability to amuse us, but for ours to amuse them. â¢Evelyn Waugh Who purposely cheats his friend, would cheat his God. â¢Lavater Friendship is like money, easier made than kept. â¢Samuel Butler A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud. â¢Ralph Waldo Emerson, If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world. â¢Blaise Pascal I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better. â¢Plutarch There is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between counsel of a friend and a flatterer. â¢Francis Bacon Friends, if we be honest with ourselves, we shall be honest with each other. â¢George Macdonald A friend is, as it were, a second self. â¢Cicero Friendship is Love without his wings! â¢Byron To give counsel as well as to take it is a feature of true friendship. â¢Cicero Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find. â¢Shakespeare That friendship will not continue to the end which is begun for an end. â¢Quarles He who has not the weakness of friendship has not the strength. â¢Joubert Every friend is to the other a sun, and a sunflower also. â¢Richter Our most intimate friend is not he to whom we show the worst, but the best of our nature. â¢Nathaniel Hawthorne The rule of friendship means there should be mutual sympathy between them, each supplying what the other lacks and trying to benefit the other, always using friendly and sincere words. â¢Buddha Friendship always benefits; love sometimes injures. â¢Seneca The mind is lowered through association with inferiors. With equals it attains equality; and with superiors, superiority. â¢The Hitopadesa Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer. â¢La Fontaine The more we love our friends, the less we flatter them; is by excusing nothing that pure love shows itself. â¢Moliere One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible. Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life, a community of thought, a rivalry of aim. â¢Henry Brook Adams A friend in need is a friend to be avoided. â¢Lord Samuel While your friend holds you affectionately by both your hands you are safe, for you can watch both of his. â¢Anonymous Even the best of friends cannot attend each other's funeral. â¢Kehlog Albran The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend. â¢Henry David Thoreau There are friendships to one who lives in society; thus our present grief arises from having friendships; observing the evils resulting from friendship, let one walk alone like a rhinoceros. â¢Buddha The best way to destroy your enemy is to make him your friend. â¢Abraham Lincoln If a man does not make new acquaintances, as he advances through life, he soon will find himself alone. A man should keep his friendship in constant repair. â¢Samuel Johnson You should never second-guess the motives of your true friends. You don't even have to analyze their actions because you know, at bottom, that whatever they do or say or think flows in some fundamental way from the fact that they love you. â¢Star Jones True friends visit us in prosperity only when invited, but in adversity they come without invitation. â¢Theophrastus True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation. â¢George Washington But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life; and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine. â¢Thomas Jefferson True friendship brings sunshine to the shade, and shade to the sunshine

Charlotte Bronte

Hatreds are the cinders of affection.

Sir Walter Ralegh

Hatreds are the cinders of affection.

Sir Walter Raleigh

It is not the size of a man but the size of his heart that matters. â¢Evander Holyfield The less you open your heart to others, the more your heart suffers. â¢Deepak Chopra Whether you call my heart affectionate, or you call it womanish: I confess, that to my misfortune, it is soft. â¢Ovid Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. â¢Ralph Waldo Emerson A heart in love with beauty never grows old. â¢Turkish Proverb To wear your heart on your sleeve isn't a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.

Evander Holyfield

Grief is only the memory of widowed affections.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

For historians ought to be precise, truthful, and quite unprejudiced, and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor affection, should cause them to swerve from the path of truth, whose mother is history, the rival of time, the depository of great actions, the witness of what is past, the example and instruction of the present, the monitor of the future.

Miguel De Cervantes

No greater nor more affectionate honor can be conferred on an American than to have a public school named after him.

Herbert Hoover

Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.

Thomas Bailey Bible

A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.

George Eliot

With this there grows In my most ill-compos'd affection such A stanchless avarice that, were I King, I should cut off the nobles for their lands, Desire his jewels, and this other's house, And my more-having would be as a sauce To make me hunger more, that I should forge Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal, Destroying them for wealth.

William Shakespeare

Were't not affection chains thy tender days To the sweet glances of thy honored love, I rather would entreat thy company To see the wonders of the world abroad Than, living dully sluggardized at home, Wear out thy youth with shapeless idleness.